A sermon from October 10, 2021, given at St. Paul’s Episcopal in San Rafael: Good morning! Truth: my family spent approximately 6,395 hours in the last week playing Monopoly. We have also occasionally eaten food, slept, done our homework (and our “grown up work”), read books, played soccer and walked the dog, but for the most part we have built houses on the orange properties, prayed for a double when we landed in jail – “Please God, let me have... Read more
This Sunday, if you didn’t know, is National Back to Church Sunday. Popularized by an organization of the same name out of Colorado Springs, they have “set aside the third Sunday in September as the day to encourage everyone to attend a Bible-based church in their area and for church leaders to create a welcoming, inviting environment for their visitors” since 2009. Now I, as you may well know, identify as Episcopalian, and while Episcopal churches have their own “homecoming”... Read more
This is a sermon from July 31, 2022, given at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, California. Enjoy! — My parents were in town this last week, visiting from Oregon. And on Thursday, as we were sitting down to lunch, my mom said, “Do you know where Mountain View Cemetery is?” Mountain View Cemetery? I thought, thinking about the likely town of Mountain View, over on the Peninsula. “Nope,” I finally responded. I chewed my turkey sandwich. “Well, it’s here in... Read more
Well, if this is not the best question to come across my desk, I don’t know what is. But first, a story (or two, or three): Today was a cuss-worthy kind of day. I got news I didn’t want to get, news that didn’t make me feel like a superstar, news that made me feel sad and frustrated and defeated, all in the same breath. And, oh, I cussed. I cussed something fierce. I went into the backyard, and I... Read more
Today’s questions comes straight from the mouth of babes, which is to say that my seven-year-old asked me this very question the other day (minutes, it seemed, after the same question came in from a reader): “Who made God?” My son understands that just as he came from Mama and Daddy, he also came from God. Although he’s prone to roll his eyes when I remind him that he is God’s beloved, it’s also not hard for him to grasp... Read more
There’s only one CD I ever regret putting in the Goodwill pile: TLC’s CrazySexyCool. It was my freshman or sophomore year of college – and I know that I’m dating myself in a most obvious, mid-to late-nineties sort of way, but there was nothing but love when T-Boz and Left Eye began to sing. I blasted it in my high school bedroom, and later in my college dorm room. “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls” would have continued to play had my pastor... Read more
This last week, the following question came across my desk: “Why can’t Christians do yoga?” I closed my eyes. I shook my head. Then, just as now, I invite us ask a different kind of question: “Can Christians do yoga?” We ask instead. And the answer is a fierce yes. Now, I’ll be honest: for the first thirty years of my life, I didn’t participate in a whole lot of yoga. This wasn’t because I believed it was bad, that... Read more
When today’s question came across my desk, I just smiled. I’m just as obsessed with the FLDS Church as the next girl – or at least as the next nerdy theology girl who reads all the books and watches all the documentaries on this particular sect of the LDS church. (If you haven’t yet seen Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, you best get your Netflix on and start some weekend watching. If you’re looking for something to read, Under the... Read more
Another question came my way: “Can Christians be depressed?” I read the words and shook my head, mostly because I wish we didn’t have to ask such a question in the first place. Christians can indeed be depressed, for depression is an illness. Depression, in its truest form, cannot be prayed away, nor should we believe it unlike any other medical diagnosis that requires proper intervention. Sometimes our brains get sick and sometimes our legs get sick; sometimes our tummies get sick... Read more
A couple of days ago, the following question came across my desk: “Can Christians meditate?” Of course Christians can meditate, I remember thinking to myself. But I also knew the question begged for more of an explanation, even if my immediate response was a resounding yes. I thought back to a walk with a friend a few days before. My friend Bianca and I were catching up on life – her on one side of the phone in Santa Cruz,... Read more
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